The Cli-Fi Report is a portal for all things cli-fi, a subgenre of speculative fiction, with new links from blogs to videos to Wikipedia to Twitter to news links and Facebook Groups. See the portal, the largest Cli-Fi portal on the Internet at cli-fi.net / MEDIA inquiries at: danbloom@gmail.com

Graduating Senior exchange student from Communist China named Shuping Yang’s ''Freedom Is Oxygen'' speech is here with full transcript for the brainwashed, maincontrolled, uncivilized robots in Commie China to chew on as their country goes deeper into dictatorship and unthinking stupidity re free speech and human rights and democracy. Bravo Ms Yang.

0100

Shuping Yang’s Freedom Is Oxygen University Of Maryland Speech

“http://Lybio.net The Accurate Source To Find Quotes To Shuping Yang’s Freedom Is Oxygen University Of Maryland Speech.”

[Shuping Yang’s Freedom Is Oxygen University Of Maryland Speech]

[Yang Shuping (University of Maryland Commencement Speech May 21, 2017):] Good afternoon faculty student parents and friends. I am truly honored and grateful to speak at the commencement for the University of Maryland, Class of 2017.[Applause]People often ask me: Why did you come to the University of Maryland?

Good afternoon faculty student parents and friends. I am truly honored and grateful to speak at the commencement for the University of Maryland, Class of 2017.[Applause]

People often ask me: Why did you come to the University of Maryland?

I always answer: Fresh air.

Five years ago, as I step off the plane from China, and left the terminal at Dallas Airport. I was ready to put on one of my five face masks, but when I took my first breath of American air. I put my mask away. The air was so sweet and fresh, and oddly luxurious. I was surprised by this. I grew up in a city in China, where I had to wear a face mask every time I went outside, otherwise, I might get sick.However, the moment I inhaled and exhaled outside the airport. I felt free.[Applause]No more fog on my glasses, no more difficult breathing, no more suppression.Every breath was a delight. As I stand here today, I cannot help, but recall that feeling of freedom.At the University of Maryland, I assume feel another kind of fresh air for which I will be forever grateful – the fresh air of free speech.[Applause]Before I came to United States, I learned in history class about the Declaration of Independence, but these words had no meaning to me: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness.I was merely memorizing the words to get good grades.These words sounded so strange, so abstract and so foreign to me, until I came to University of Maryland.I have leaned the right to freely express oneself is sacred in American.Each day in Maryland, I was encouraged to express my opinions on controversial issues. I could challenge a statement made by my instructor. I could even rate my professors online.[Laugh][Yang Shuping:] Source: LYBIO.net But nothing prepared me for the culture shock I experienced when I watched a university production of the play, Twilight: Los Angeles.Twilight is a play by Anna Deavere Smith about the 1992 Los Angeles Riots.The riots followed acquittal of four Los Angeles police officers in the videotaped arrest and beating of Rodney King.For six days, the city was in chaos as citizens took to the streets.In Twilight, the student actors were openly talking about racism, sexism and politics.I was shocked, I never saw such topic could be discussed openly.The play was my first taste of political storytelling, one that makes the audience think critically.I have always had a burning desire to tell these kinds of stories, but I was convinced that only authorities own the narrative, only authorities could define the truth.However, the opportunity to immerse myself in the diverse community at the University of Maryland exposed me to various, many different perspectives on truth.I soon realized that here I have the opportunity to speak freely.My voice matters.[Applause]Your voice matters.Our voices matter.[Applause][Yang Shuping:] Source: LYBIO.net Civil engagement is not a task just for politicians. I have witnessed this when I saw my fellow students marching in Washington D.C., voting in the presidential election and raising money for support various causes.I have seen that everyone has a right to participate and advocate for change.I used to believe that one individual participation could not make a difference, but here we are, United Terps.[Applause]Together, we can push our society to be more just open and peaceful.Class of 2017, we are graduating from a university that embraces a liberal arts education that nurtures us to think critically, and also to care and feel for humanity.We are equipped with the knowledge of various disciplines and we are ready to face to the challenges of our society.Some of us may go to graduate school, some us may step into professions and some of us may begin a journey of exploration.But no matter what we do, remember, democracy and free speech should not be taken for granted. Democracy and freedom are the fresh air that is worth fighting for.[Applause] Source: LYBIO.netFreedom is oxygen. Freedom is passion. Freedom is love.[Yang Shuping:] Source: LYBIO.net And as a French philosopher Jean Paul Sartre once said: freedom is a choice, our future is dependent on the choices we make today and tomorrow.We are all playwrights of the next chapters of our lives. Together, we right the human history.My friends, enjoy the fresh air and never let it go.Thank you.Shuping Yang’s Freedom Is Oxygen University Of Maryland Speech

Shuping Yang’s Freedom Is Oxygen University Of Maryland Speech. Freedom is oxygen. Freedom is passion. Freedom is love. Complete Full Transcript, Dialogue, Remarks, Saying, Quotes, Words And Text To Shuping Yang’s Freedom Is Oxygen University Of Maryland Speech.

by staff writer and agencieshat tip to Leanne Wright for the info and photo

Above is an old black-and-white photograph of Moses Znaimer as a child arriving as a new immigrant Halifax's Pier 21, with the photo later splashed on the cover of a weekly newspaper with the caption: "DP with a Future."

TORONTO -- Take two Canadian offspring of Holocaust survivors, Moses Znaimer and Hindy Nosek-Abelson, and put them in Toronto TV studio and the result will be the first-ever Yiddish translation and group performance of Canada's national anthem "O Canada" just in time for Canada Day on July 1st, which celebrates this year the 150th birthday of the nation.

Hosting the event is Toronto media maven Znaimer who was was born in Tajikistan when his Latvian and Polish parents were on the run from the Nazis during World War II in Europe. He arrived in Canada in 1948 at the age of six, settled in Montreal and then Toronto, and is one of Canada's best-known media figures.

With his generosity, he has made the facilities of his Zoomer TV studio available for a group sing-a-along of "O Canada" in Yiddish, which will take place on June 6.

Nosek-Abelson, who was born in a DP camp in Europe in 1947, came to Canada when she was three years old, did the translation of the national anthem into Yiddish, with musical direction and piano by David Warrack. The spirited performance, by a large chorus of assembled singers, will be filmed for broadcast on VisionTV in Canada.

On this page (above) is an old black-and-white photograph of Znaimer as a child arriving as a new immigrant Halifax's Pier 21, with the photo later splashed on the cover of a weekly newspaper with the caption: "DP with a Future."

The singing event will start at 6 p.m. on June 6 with a complimentary "l'chaim and a nosh," according to Leanne Wright, the Winnipeg-born PR officer helping to promote the show. The performance will begin at 7 p.m., with "O Canada" sung in Yiddish.

''Yiddish was the first language of most Jewish immigrants to Canada from the late 1800s on," Nosek-Abelson recently told San Diego Jewish World. "While it isn't spoken as a daily language as frequently as it once was, there remains a powerful love for the language shared by many thousands of Canadian people for whom Yiddish was either their own mother-tongue or that of their parents and grandparents.
That explains the overwhelmingly enthusiastic response by a Jewish community eager to pay tribute to the Canada that welcomed them or their ancestors and gave them their very first taste of freedom from Nazi persecution. To do it in the language they lived, loved, created and flourished in represents a particularly meaningful expression of the gratitude and love for this country that Jewish Canadians share."

"I was born in 1947 in a DP camp just outside of Kassel Germany," she said. "My parents were Holocaust survivors who met right after the war. They lost everyone in their families except for my father's son from his first marriage. He lost a 10-year-old daughter and his first wife. He was from Grabov, Poland. My mother, who lost three children all under the age of 10, was from Nikolayev, Ukraine. Canada gave my parents their first taste of freedom. And they were eternally grateful and thrilled to be here. I translated 'O Canada' for them. They would have sung it with great pride."

Nosek-Abelson is a Toronto freelance writer, blogger, dialect coach and lyrical translator of Yiddish poetry and songs. She told this reporter that she feels that while we are taught a lot about how our ancestors perished, we know precious little about how they lived.

So for her, Yiddish songs and poetry offer a perfect snapshot into the everyday lives, loves, struggles, triumphs and joys of European Jewry. Her way of honoring the creative genius of the many Yiddish writers who contributed so prolifically to the dynamic and creative culture that flourished before the Shoah is to transmit their style and creativity to the world. She recently translated a film script for a brand new all-Yiddish film called ''Shechita'' and coached two non-Yiddish speaking actors to speak in perfect mameloshn, she said.

"O Canada" has been sung in a variety of non-English iterations, from French to Spanish. One source in Canada cites a total of 17 translations of the anthem, but with one exception, until now: Yiddish. But that is set to change on June 6 in the run-up to Canada Day on July 1st, when two groups of Canadian Yiddishists debut their versions of the song.One performance will be a solo by Canadian singer and actress Deb Filler, while a second version will be performed by a group choir of Canadian singers to be assembled at Zoomer TV. Both versions use the Yiddish translation done by Nosek-Abelson. Filler's solo performance will be uploaded to a video website for everyone to see, and the Zoomer TV event will be broadcast throughout Canada and later on will be archived online at the TV station's website.

So with Canada Day just a few weeks away, here are the lyrics in Yiddish. (c) 2017 Hindy Nosek-Abelson

The New York Times expands to Australia, with Damien Cave running the Sydney bureau and the New York Times Sunday Book Review setting up an Australia office as well to cover books written and reviewed by Australian writers and literary critics.

But we’re also experimenting with deeper conversation and additional features on social media.
Subscribers can now join NYT Australia, a new private Facebook group where we’re already discussing the most important and interesting issues facing Australia and the world. As the community grows, we’ll be sharing our own work and what we find fascinating from others, answering questions or asking them, and encouraging readers to do the same.

We’ll also be delivering special features there that we hope will stir up enlightening conversation. One example: something I’m calling the NYT Oz Culture Club, in which we pick a book or other art form, digest it together, then discuss it with someone who can provide special insight.

To kick it off, we’re lucky enough to have Pamela Paul – the editor of The New York Times Book Review and the author of four books on everything from reading to marriage – joining us in Sydney.

She’s chosen a book for us by a Melburnian, Sarah Schmidt: the debut novel “See What I Have Done.” At the end of May, they’ll sit down to discuss the book and its themes of feminism, horror and family dynamics – and we’ll extend that discussion to the NYT Australia group on Facebook.

Damien, who has run bureaus for the Times in Miami and Mexico over a long and storied career tat the paper, also notes:

''Welcome to The New York Times’s latest ambitious experiment in covering the world and connecting with readers.

''I’m Damien Cave, your new Australia bureau chief — a Yank, a bit of a larrikin, a father of two, and a writer and editor who has covered a dozen countries. I want to make sure you know how to find our expanded coverage of Australia and the region, and how to connect with our journalists, and with each other.

''Our primary goal, of course, is to bring you more of the high-quality coverage that you’ve come to expect from Times reporters and photographers around the world. We’re putting together a talented team here that will dig deep and wide. But as we build momentum and deliver more distinctive coverage — like this article on the Great Barrier Reef, or this feature on New Zealand courting global techies — we want you, our audience, to help shape the journey.''

Saturday, May 13, 2017

'Tikkun' magazine invites a climate activist of the literary to explain himself

[OpEd]

A few weeks ago, I approached Rabbi Michael Lerner in California, the founder of Tikkun magazine, about writing a blog post for his publication, and he kindly invited me to send my piece in. A few days later, it was published, with the headline "A 'Cli-Fi Missionary' with Jewish Roots Who is Fighting Global Warming."

I started off the oped in a conversational way, writing: "I'm ａ climate change literary activist and gadfly, and I'd like to talk to you today about something I call cli-fi."

And then I told my story, parts of which are excerpted here, noting: "I'm close to 70, and I graduated from Tufts University in 1971 with a major in literature, and promoting the literary fortunes of cli-fi is now my life work. And I'm Jewish, and my Jewish education and family life in western Massachusetts in the 1950s and 1960s plays a central role, even today, in my climate activism.

''So what's cli-fi? It's a subgenre of sci-fi, according to some observers, and a separate stand-alone genre of its own, according to others. I feel that cli-fi novels and movies can cut through the bitter divide among rightwing denialists and leftwing liberals worldwide over the global warming debate. I'm not into politics; I'm into literature and movies.

''We are a world now divided bitterly over climate change issues. In my view of things, novels and movies can serve to wake people up in ways that politics and ideology cannot. That's where cli-fi comes in. In my late 60s, with a heart attack-related stent keeping my ticker ticking, and my days numbered now, I'm combining my Jewish heritage with its emphasis on social justice with my personal concerns about the future impacts of man-made global warming.

''As a Jewish person, I learned from an early age the need to look out for others and have empathy for the world at large. Climate change is the most important issue the humankind has ever faced. As a Jew, I cannot look away.

''Ten years ago, I coined a new literary term I dubbed 'cli-fi' for 'climate fiction' novels and movies. My coinage with its modelling of the sci-fi term, was picked up by reporters for the New York Times, the Guardian, the BBC and San Diego Jewish World where I write occasionally pen a freelance column about Jewish life and culture.

''In 2015, I set up a website called The Cli-Fi Report to broadcast my views about cli-fi and to gather feedback from literary critics and novelists around the world.

''I fund my work myself on a very small shoestring budget in my sunset years, but I had a father who left me an inheritance more important than money: a Yiddish term called 'menschlekeit.' And to be a PR guy for cli-fi in my late 60s is in direct gratitude for the good life I've had on this planet, and it's also my way of saying thanks to my dad and mom, Bernie Bloom from Avenue J in Brooklyn, and Sylvia Epstein Bloom from Blue Hill Avenue in Boston.

''What I want to say today, here in Tikkun, is thank you Bernie and Sylvia. You both taught me that it was important not only to be a mensch in one's daily life but also to try to help 'repair the world' -- tikkun olam in Hebrew.

''And for me, with my contribution of a new literary term to the world, that is what my work on the climate fight is all about: tikkun olam. I am not writing a book about cli-fi, I am not appearing on TV talk shows, and I am not making a documentary about my work. I am not interested in fame or money.

''And despite not having stepped foot in a synagogue for over 40 years, I'm as Jewish as they come, and I recognize the importance of my Jewish heritage, first described in the second creation story in the Torah, to steward the Earth's resources. That's why I was inspired to coin and publicize the cli-fi term: to try to save future generations of humankind as global warming impact events make themselves felt worldwide more and more over the next 30 generations of man. I'm a visionary of sorts, but I don't hear supernatural voices. I only hear my parents saying to me: 'Danny, don't give up!'

''And so help me God, I'm never giving up.''

After the oped was published online, two responses from readers came in that resonated with me, one from a Jewish man in North America, and another from a Jewish man in Australia.

Richard Schwartz wrote: "Kudos to Dan Bloom. Since most people prefer fiction and movies to factual material, his approach could be a major help in increasing awareness about climate change, so important to help shift our imperilled planet onto a sustainable path.''

And Evan Shapiro, a novelist and public relations consultant in Australia, reached out to me in a longer reaction, writing:

''Thank you for sharing. It's a fascinating and well-outlined perspective. While I'm from Jewish decent, I wasn't brought up Jewish. My grandparents were observant, but both my parents declared themselves as atheists and gave my siblings and I a very liberal upbringing and education here in Australia. My feelings about being Jewish are by no means simple. There have been times in my life I've felt it keenly. There are particular aspects of my life that also make me feel very Australian, though by no means is that very traditional, either. It's an interesting place to find yourself. As I get older, however, I feel more and more human and observant of social conditioning of all kinds that may or may not have affected my outlook. Appreciative of my background and upbringing but open to looking well beyond them, if that makes sense. It's that sense of humanity beyond the label, or perhaps beneath the label that drives me to communicate ideas of human compassion. From a human perspective, how can we not save our one and only precious planet? Thank you for sharing your honest and open article. I really enjoyed it.''

Climate change and global warming impacts us all, and Jewish reporters have often been on the front lines of climate reporting, from George Monbiot in the Guardian newspaper to Andrew Revkin at the New York Times and now with Politico. At Think Progress, Joe Romm delivers sharply worded and well-researched diatribes against climate denialists and he doesn't mince words. And at the New York Times' recently reorganized Climate Desk under Alaska-born-and-raised Hannah Fairfield, veteran Times reporter John Schwartz covers national climate issues along with a team of top-notch journalists.

Since global warming is a particularly vexing and complicated issue, it attracts reporters of all faiths unafraid to battle entrenched climate change deniers who populate the current Republican Party under the administration of President Donald Trump.

​
Even New York Times publisher Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr. is getting into the act.

According to Hadas Gold, a Revkin colleague at Politico, Sulzberger is completely behind his new hires at the Climate Desk and is adamant that his newspaper will continue to focus on climate change, including more photo essays about rising sea levels impacting cities worldwide, and environmental rules, regulations and other policies rolled back during Trump's first few months in office.

In addition, Gold noted, a recent issue of the Times glossy Sunday Magazine was dedicated to the future of the Earth's climate.

"This [climate] journalism [we do] is unrivaled in its sophistication and imagination," Sulzberger wrote in a recent message to readers. "The support of our subscribers is what allows us to pursue such ambitious stories all over the globe."

The Times offers readers a free online newsletter from its Climate Desk to keep track of future stories and insights.

​In related news, the unique ​Alaskan background of Times climate editor Fairfield is interesting and makes for a good story. She was raised in Fort Yukon by Episcopalian missionary parents who ministered to the ​spiritual and community needs of ​indigenous Gwich​'​in Athabascan population of the tiny rural village close by the banks of the mighty Yukon River. Fairfield spent her first 18 years there​,​ and in the university town of Fairbanks​,​ before going to college in the Lower 48 and later joining the Times as a digital storyteller in 2000.​

Fort Yukon, population 600, where Fairfield spent the first four years of her life is populated by Native Alaskans whose ancestors have lived in Alaska for over 10,000 years. Fairfield moved with her parents to Fairbanks to attend the local public schools, finishing high school in 1992.
In Fort Yukon, her parents and their four children lived in the Episcopalian mission church house and offered what services the church could, including baptisms, weddings and burials. They were one of the few white families in the village, and according to the family, the children cherished their time there.

Think things like Fairbanks at 60 degrees below for three weeks in the winter of 1989. Think life in a subsistence village of rural Alaskans whose ancestors go back centuries. Think boat trips on the Yukon in the summer, fishing for salmon, and yes, eating salmon. Lox!

So what does Alaska mean to this very well-placed climate journalist, Hannah Fairfield? And how has her experience growing up in a Christian missionary family in rural Alaska shaped her views on nature, God and global warming?

Although a happy and dedicated New Yorker now, and loving it, old-timers in Alaska contend that once you live there you can never really let the place go in your heart and mind and soul -- or in your view of the way the world works. Ask any Alaskan, past or present. It's that kind of place. The Last Frontier.

I know this feeling because I lived in Alaska for 12 years in the late 1970s and 1980s -- mostly in Juneau but with two long winters in Nome -- and although I left the state in 1991, I still keep Alaska close in mind and my experiences there in fact led me to find a home later on in a growing cli-fi community of artists, writers, dreamers and climate activists.

Another thing I am looking forward to, hopefully, will be Fairfield's future policy of capitalizing the word "Earth" in Times' articles about climate change and global warming, since there is no reason on Earth to keep lowercasing it, as the newspaper does now.

It's not "earth Day" in April every year. It's "Earth Day," with a capital E. It's time for the New York Times to adjust their editorial style and start showing more respect for the Earth, our home planet.

Dean Baquet, the top editor at the Times, recently put it this way, in announcing Fairfield's new climate gig in a staff memo:
''With Hannah's appointment, we aim to build on what has already been dominant coverage of climate change and to establish The Times as a guide to readers on this most important issue. The subject has taken on more urgency as the Earth's temperature continues to break records and a new political leadership in Washington appears poised to make sweeping changes to policies meant to limit carbon emissions."

Tikkun magazine invites a climate activist of the literary to explain himself

Blogposted:

A few weeks ago, I approached Rabbi Michael Lerner in California, the founder of Tikkun magazine, about writing a blog post for his publication, and he kindly invited me to send my piece in. A few days later, it was published, with the headline "A 'Cli-Fi Missionary' with Jewish Roots Who is Fighting Global Warming."

I started off the oped in a conversational way, writing: "I'm ａ climate change literary activist and gadfly, and I'd like to talk to you today about something I call cli-fi."

And then I told my story, parts of which are excerpted here, noting: "I'm close to 70, and I graduated from Tufts University in 1971 with a major in literature, and promoting the literary fortunes of cli-fi is now my life work. And I'm Jewish, and my Jewish education and family life in western Massachusetts in the 1950s and 1960s plays a central role, even today, in my climate activism.

''So what's cli-fi? It's a subgenre of sci-fi, according to some observers, and a separate stand-alone genre of its own, according to others. I feel that cli-fi novels and movies can cut through the bitter divide among rightwing denialists and leftwing liberals worldwide over the global warming debate. I'm not into politics; I'm into literature and movies.

''We are a world now divided bitterly over climate change issues. In my view of things, novels and movies can serve to wake people up in ways that politics and ideology cannot. That's where cli-fi comes in. In my late 60s, with a heart attack-related stent keeping my ticker ticking, and my days numbered now, I'm combining my Jewish heritage with its emphasis on social justice with my personal concerns about the future impacts of man-made global warming.

''As a Jewish person, I learned from an early age the need to look out for others and have empathy for the world at large. Climate change is the most important issue the humankind has ever faced. As a Jew, I cannot look away.

''Ten years ago, I coined a new literary term I dubbed 'cli-fi' for 'climate fiction' novels and movies. My coinage with its modelling of the sci-fi term, was picked up by reporters for the New York Times, the Guardian, the BBC and San Diego Jewish World where I write occasionally pen a freelance column about Jewish life and culture.

''In 2015, I set up a website called The Cli-Fi Report to broadcast my views about cli-fi and to gather feedback from literary critics and novelists around the world.

''I fund my work myself on a very small shoestring budget in my sunset years, but I had a father who left me an inheritance more important than money: a Yiddish term called 'menschlekeit.' And to be a PR guy for cli-fi in my late 60s is in direct gratitude for the good life I've had on this planet, and it's also my way of saying thanks to my dad and mom, Bernie Bloom from Avenue J in Brooklyn, and Sylvia Epstein Bloom from Blue Hill Avenue in Boston.

''What I want to say today, here in Tikkun, is thank you Bernie and Sylvia. You both taught me that it was important not only to be a mensch in one's daily life but also to try to help 'repair the world' -- tikkun olam in Hebrew.

''And for me, with my contribution of a new literary term to the world, that is what my work on the climate fight is all about: tikkun olam. I am not writing a book about cli-fi, I am not appearing on TV talk shows, and I am not making a documentary about my work. I am not interested in fame or money.

''And despite not having stepped foot in a synagogue for over 40 years, I'm as Jewish as they come, and I recognize the importance of my Jewish heritage, first described in the second creation story in the Torah, to steward the Earth's resources. That's why I was inspired to coin and publicize the cli-fi term: to try to save future generations of humankind as global warming impact events make themselves felt worldwide more and more over the next 30 generations of man. I'm a visionary of sorts, but I don't hear supernatural voices. I only hear my parents saying to me: 'Danny, don't give up!'

''And so help me God, I'm never giving up.''

After the oped was published online, two responses from readers came in that resonated with me, one from a Jewish man in North America, and another from a Jewish man in Australia.

Richard Schwartz wrote: "Kudos to Dan Bloom. Since most people prefer fiction and movies to factual material, his approach could be a major help in increasing awareness about climate change, so important to help shift our imperilled planet onto a sustainable path.''

And Evan Shapiro, a novelist and public relations consultant in Australia, reached out to me in a longer reaction, writing:

''Thank you for sharing. It's a fascinating and well-outlined perspective. While I'm from Jewish decent, I wasn't brought up Jewish. My grandparents were observant, but both my parents declared themselves as atheists and gave my siblings and I a very liberal upbringing and education here in Australia. My feelings about being Jewish are by no means simple. There have been times in my life I've felt it keenly. There are particular aspects of my life that also make me feel very Australian, though by no means is that very traditional, either. It's an interesting place to find yourself. As I get older, however, I feel more and more human and observant of social conditioning of all kinds that may or may not have affected my outlook. Appreciative of my background and upbringing but open to looking well beyond them, if that makes sense. It's that sense of humanity beyond the label, or perhaps beneath the label that drives me to communicate ideas of human compassion. From a human perspective, how can we not save our one and only precious planet? Thank you for sharing your honest and open article. I really enjoyed it.''

For a group of 17 short story writers in Canada, putting together a collection of stories for a new anthology titled "Cli-Fi: Canadian Tales of Climate Change" was a labor of love and a commitment to speak up about the risks and fixes for runaway global warming. Bruce Meyer put out a nationwide call last year for short stories from Canadian authors, and 300 submissions came in, he told this blog.

The book was published by Exile Editions with Michael Callaghan serving as editorial director. Stories by Kate Story, Peter Timmerman, Leslie Goodreid and Nina Munteanu, among 13 others, are contemporary examples of cli-fi writing of the short story kind, and they are getting media attention now across Canada and the rest of the English-speaking world, from Australia to Britain.

"Climate change is no fiction, but a new short story anthology attempts to bring an imaginative response to one of the world's greatest crises," he said. "The Agenda welcomes the book's editor and several of its authors to talk about their fictional tales, and why writers need to respond to the threat of climate change."

​For the next 30 minutes, the three panelists and their host chatted about climate change and literature. ​

​"​

The

​Earth's

climate is not infinite

​," Meyer, a well-known literary figure in Canada, said in the introduction of the anthology.​

​"​

The air we breathe, the water we need to sustain life, even the temperature of the day, are all necessary ingredients for the survival of human beings. That said, what we remove from beneath the ground – the coal, oil, gas and metals – do not simply disappear because we release them into the air or the water. The more we make, the more we need to unmake, and that creation of new things, that use of non-renewable resources for energy is an enormous expression of our self-deception: we merely rearrange what already exists in the world, and those rearranged things do not simply disappear because we want them to. The world

​'​

s capacity to absorb and tolerate misplaced carbon, among other things, has reached the point where the balance of nature has been permanently altered by human activities. What is one day

​'​

s resource will become another day

​'​

​

s waste and another day

​'​

s waste will become another day

​'​

s poison. The result of this process is already evident.

​"

Imagining the results of climate change is nothing new

​,

though it has not been a topic of necessity for most writers in Canada

​, Meyer added, noting:​

​"​

We

​[Canadians] ​

learn to ignore those things that do not celebrate our potential for failure. We write about our successes because success reinforces that status quo and comforts us. The uncomfortable topic, the unsettling reality, is a hard sell to readers and an even harder sell to writers as subject matter.

​"

So his new anthology is an attempt to change all that in literary circles in Canada, he said.

​"​

Canadian literature, by virtue of its thematic matter, should offer some hope

​," according to Meyer.

​"​

Canada has produced a literature that is conscious of its setting. The ramifications of nature are omnipresent in the works of Canadian writers; yet for all the wilderness musings of snowfalls or even hard-scrabble dustbowl farming, climate change has not been a major concern, until now. This anthology was an answer to a call that was made by Margaret Atwood in April of 2015.

​"

Meyer explained that​

Atwood came to Barrie, Ontario

​ that year​

to speak at a high-school literary festival

​with ​

t

​he​

evening

​having

a theme: our relationship to the world and what we can do to save it. During her address to the audience, Atwood reminded everyone of the warnings Al Gore, had sounded in his

​2006 ​

film

​''​

An Inconvenient Truth

​.​

​''​

The film went into

​worldwide ​

theatrical release and roused considerable international discussion.

In the middle of Atwood

​'s

discussion of the impact of climate change,

​Meyer recalled, ​

she paused and put a question to the audience:

​"​

Where are all the Canadian writers who should be addressing the greatest crisis of our age?

​" ​

There was dead silence. No one knew how to respond.

​"​

Atwood had been doing her part with her

​"Maddaddam" ​

trilogy of

​climate-themed ​

novels, but the idea of Cli-Fi, the fiction of climate change, had not entered the Canadian imagination as a convenient topic

​," Meyer said.

So the seed was planted for Meyer to create an anthology of Canadian short stories about climate change, and in consultation with publisher Callahan, the wheels were set in motion. From Margaret Atwood's lips to Bruce Meyer's editorial vision, this book was born.